1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of, and an apparatus for producing a shaped rubber body, such as an unvulcanized tire or a tire constituent member, on a rotating support.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known a method of producing shaped rubber body on a rotating support wherein a rubber strip is extruded by a positive displacement extruding system and either directly or indirectly applied onto an outer peripheral surface of the support while it is rotated, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,372,070 B1, for example. The positive displacement extruding system includes, as seen from an upstream side of the rubber strip, a screw extruder unit, a gear pump unit and an extrusion head unit with an extrusion nozzle, which are connected in series with each other. A pair of guide rollers is arranged between the extrusion nozzle and the support, to define a gap through which the rubber strip is passed so that one of the guide rolls guides the rubber strip and applies it onto the support. Such a method proved to be highly advantageous in that the rubber strip can be accurately and efficiently applied onto the support.
It would be highly desirable to further improve the above-mentioned known method in such a way as to improve uniformity of the shaped rubber body in terms of its weight and/or physical properties.